They Say
by Ashabadash
Summary: Sometimes it's rather amazing what a blind man can see. Auggie/Annie. First CA fic


Author's note: I originally wrote this as an original piece, different names and work place, and then later I realized that If I subbed out the names and added a little CIA, I had Auggie and Annie. So YAY!

Summary: Auggie sees Annie better than anyone else. Ironic, he knows, being that he hasn't seen anything in a long, long time.

* * *

They say that she's the prettiest girl at the office. She with her wavy blonde hair, her stunning blue eyes, her petite body and her dazzling smile.

They say that there wasn't a single straight guy in the office in their right mind who hadn't asked her out yet. To no avail of course. She usually declined, graciously and politely. She'd rather just hang out with her friends, have a drink or two after work, and head home. Apparently, they say, she doesn't date guys from work.

They say that she dresses to tease. Her shirts are low cut. She always wears skirts and her heels make her legs go for days. But she was always professional, never crossing the line between office appropriate and hooker appropriate.

They say she's the best thing to happen to this place.

But the only thing I knew about her appearance was her perfume. Grapefruit. She wore it every day. And it was just subtle enough to know that she was in the room. She didn't pour the whole damn bottle over her head like _some_ desperate women here. *cough* _Bea Mower_ *cough*

Just as I was thinking about it, that familiar scent reached my sensitive nose. Ah, early today, she must have a meeting with Joan.

"Hey Annie," I said as my friend entered the elevator with me. She brought a certain glow to the usual darkness that was my life. "Meeting with the Joan today?" I asked.

"Yes and I'm totally unprepared," Annie said. I heard papers shuffling and something light – possibly a pen – dropping to the floor. "Crap." She whispered.

"Here," I offered, holding out my hands to take whatever was making her life so hectic.

"Thanks Auggie," she said and placed a file folder in my hands. "Everything has been going wrong and I really didn't need it today…" She took the folder back and I heard a zip as she put it in her bag. Her movements made frustrated sounds. The violent zipping of her bag, the tapping of her heels on the elevator floor, the occasional clicking of her tongue when the elevator stopped at a floor that wasn't ours; it was all leaving a rather tense feeling behind.

Finally, I faced her. "Alright, Annie, look at me." I knew exactly what to do; I'd been working with Annie Walker for 3 years now. I heard her slowly turn toward my direction. I reached out and she gently put her wrists in my hands. I squeezed lightly.

"You are totally prepared. I know you. You've read this case front to back a hundred times. You're going to go in there, meet with Joan and you will convince her that you did better than anyone else and got the best intel possible. Because you are Annie and you are damn good at your job." The door dinged just as I finished and there was a swooshing sound as the doors opened to our floor.

All of the sudden, I felt a quick set of lips on my cheek. I flushed. "What was that for?"

"For being the first thing to go right today," she replied and I could tell that dazzling smile I'd heard so much about had come back. Then her heels click-clacked out of the elevator and down to hall toward the conference room. I unlatched my cane from my pocket and put it in front of me as I made my way to my desk. As I walked past my co-workers, I heard one guy scoff, annoyance in his tone.

"What's he got that I don't have?" he asked another co-worker. "The guy can't even see."

* * *

"Wanna grab a drink?" the smell of Grapefruit was back as Annie knocked on the top of my computer, interrupting what was now destined to be the most boring secret code in the history of secret codes.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"It's five o'clock, work is over, do you want to grab a drink," she added and explained. Grateful for any excuse to stop running my fingers over what I hoped was a horrible letter-to-Braille translation (even if it was on the computer), I scooted back from the desk and stood up. Annie's hand wrapped around my elbow and she led the way to the elevator.

This wasn't uncommon, Annie and I often left work together to get a bite to eat or at least hang out. We've been friends for years. But lately, I'd be lying if a new feeling didn't come to me as she looped her arm through mine, or when she kissed my cheek in gratitude, or when she'd wrap her arms around my neck, trying to get some creep at the bar to stop looking down her shirt by using me as her faux-bo for the night.

I think I might have a little thing for Annie Walker.

We got in the elevator and as the doors closed, I heard her let out a sigh and she leaned her head on my shoulder. My face flushed.

Okay, I know I have a thing for Annie Walker.

* * *

We arrived at our local hang out spot; a bar on 32nd street that had cheep drinks but wasn't some grungy hole in the wall. We sat at our usual booth in the back. "Alright, shoot, how was the meeting?" I asked. Just the energy about her screamed that she needed someone to talk to.

"It was awful Aug," there was a thud as she hit her head on the table. "We were working with this new guy…Posey or something stupid like that. I make my speech, feel like I kicked a little ass, and then he makes a comment about mine."

"About your spiel?" I asked, trying to follow. The thing is, Annie gets a little animated when she's angry and talks faster. I could almost see her (you know, if I could see) waving her hands about as she went on and on and on.

"No, about my ass," Annie said. I choked on my beer.

"No!" I said. That was disgusting, in my book. Yea, according to everyone at the CIA, Annie was a fox. But even if Pamela freekin' Anderson herself started working with us…it's just not cool to make comments like that.

"Yea, I believe his exact words were 'No one with an ass like that actually works here, how much did you pay her Joan?' and she didn't even say anything about it!" Angry at how our boss hadn't reacted and at the crude remark of the other agent, I stood up slamming my hand on the table. "Auggie, what are you doing…"

"I'm not standing for this Annie," I said angrily. "Seriously, you don't deserve to be treated like this at all!"

"Auggie!" Annie got up. "It's ok," she grabbed my shoulders.

"It's not Annie," I said with a sigh. "I'm sick of all I hear at the office is these sick bastards trying to figure out how to get up your skirt. I mean, I don't even know what you look like exactly, but you should be treated with at least a little more class." She sat me back in my chair and then slid into the seat next to me.

"You sure do love to cause a scene, don't you Auggie?" she laughed and I flushed, embarrassed. "It's alright; I can handle the sexist jerks at work. I've been dealing with guys like this my entire life."

"My point is you shouldn't have to. You should be respected by them Annie, especially at work." Sometimes I wondered if people even knew how brilliant of an agent Annie was.

"Well they can't all be as great as you, can they?" she asked. I chuckled quietly, but my head spun a little. It got quiet between us. Not awkward, just quiet, both of us drifting into our own thoughts.

"Auggie?" She snapped me back to the here and now.

"Look, I'm sorry about…" but she shushed me.

"Do you want to know?" She asked. I wondered what she was talking about. She took my hand and my chest tightened as she placed it on her cheek. "Do you want to know what I look like?" I gulped quietly. Yes, I did, I did very much.

I nodded and my fingers began to trace her features. For twenty minutes at the least, we sat quietly and my fingered outlined every line of her face, hair and neck. I could hear my blood rushing through my ears as my heart beat faster and faster.

"So what they say is right…" I said. I felt her left eyebrow rise. "You are the most beautiful woman ever…" her face grew warm and I knew she was blushing. Yes, that was right, _I_ made Annie blush. "Course…I'm blind as a bat and I already knew that."

As my palms rested on each side of her face, suddenly her hands were doing the same, and she brought my face forward to hers. Those lips, the ones I had just traced into my memory, crashed to mine in the most mind numbing kiss I'd ever had since I'd gone blind. I sucked in air through my nose and my hand left her face to run through her hair.

It felt like it was days before we pulled apart. When we did however, I was stammering in shock.

"Wha…wha…" I couldn't get my mouth to function. Oh great, now I was blind and mute….

"I'm sorry…" Annie said. "I sort of attacked you there…"

"Oh, no, it's fine," I said. "But, may I ask what sparked this assault of yours?" My hand was still in her hair and hers was playing with the little sensitive hairs at the nape of my neck, causing my spine to shiver.

"You see me," Annie said. "You see me better than anyone, Auggie. You make me feel like an actual person, not just some Barbie on display."

"You ARE an actual person Annie," I said.

"I know," she said. "I think that's why I like you so much, you know that too."

I grinned and she leaned in again to kiss me against my smile.

Sometimes it's rather amazing what a blind man can see.


End file.
